China aims for faster growth in auto, parts
exports
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China, the world's fastest
growing auto market, plans to boost its annual
exports of automobiles and components to as much
as US$100 billion by 2010, state media reported
Monday.
"Our short-term target is to increase automobile and
component exports to US$15 billion to US$20 billion
by next year,'' the China Daily newspaper cited Vice
Minister of Commerce Wei Jianguo as saying.
By raising auto-related exports, China hopes to attract more foreign investment and to
build up the strategically important sector, Wei told officials attending a conference in
northeastern China's Jilin province, the report said.
In 2003, exports of autos and auto parts jumped 34.4 percent over a year earlier to
US$4.7 billion, the Commerce Ministry said in a report posted on its Web site.
China is one of the world's biggest auto parts makers. It also exports low-priced trucks,
buses and other vehicles, mainly to developing countries.
But its domestic automakers are a jumble of more than 120 small companies that are
gradually being consolidated into a handful of big groups more able to compete for a
share of the world market.
So far, the economics of carmaking in the top ranks of the industry have worked against
exports.
Most components are imported, and strong demand has kept prices high.
But that is changing. Last November, the industry saw its first exports of
premium-priced cars with a shipment of Volkswagen Polo sedans, made in Shanghai,
bound for Australia.
Honda Motor Co. has also said it plans to start exporting from China.
It is opening a factory in the southern city of Guangzhou to make subcompact cars for
sale in Asia and Europe.
Massive foreign investment in the sector is expected to help boost a handful of domestic
companies into the ranks of the world's leading automakers.
Of more than 5,000 component plants on the mainland, more than 1,200 have attracted
foreign investment, Wei said.
He said that exports of vehicles are expected to jump in 2006 as quality and price levels
move toward international levels.
By 2010, officials hope that exports will hit between US$70 billion to US$100 billion,
Wei was cited as saying in the China Daily.
He also said China also hoped to build five to 10 specialized automobile and component
exporting bases in the next several years. - AP
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